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As back-to-school sales blur into Christmas layaway promotions, consumers are spending again — but some economists warn that the splurging may be fleeting. Americans opened their wallets in August after falling gas prices and an improving job market boosted their confidence. U.S. retail sales jumped 0.6% last month from July, the biggest increase in four months, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5%, according to FactSet. In another show of strength, July sales were revised to a gain of 0.3% from June, up from a previous estimate that spending was flat. "Consumers came back with a vengeance in August," said Chris Christopher,...

Related "Back to School" Articles

As back-to-school sales blur into Christmas layaway promotions, consumers are spending again — but some economists warn that the splurging may be fleeting.
Americans opened their wallets in August after falling gas prices and an improving job market...

American consumers opened their wallets for back-to-school shopping in August, boosting retail sales as gas prices fell and the job market improved.
U.S. retail sales jumped 0.6% last month from the month before, the Commerce Department said Friday. July...

More than 650,000 Los Angeles Unified students went back to school Tuesday, supported by the largest funding boost in seven years for hundreds of new teachers, counselors, nurses, library aides and principals.
At Baldwin Hills Elementary in Los...

Teen Vogue initiated a shopping day full of special promotions called Back-to-School Saturday in 2012. This year, the event, aka #BTSS, has been stretched to almost a month long, from Friday through the Labor Day weekend (and it's been renamed...

Each spring across America, thousands of students who once lagged behind their peers get accepted to top-notch universities, thanks to what author Mike Rose calls “second chance” learning. In California alone, 20,000 community college graduates...

Hopping on the wave of back-to-schools specials, Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface Pro tablet by $100.
The Redmond, Wash.-based tech company is selling the Surface Pro, a tablet capable of running a full version of its Windows 8 operating...

Retail sales for July missed expectations as discounters and teen apparel stores struggled, causing Wall Street to fret about the fate of back-to-school shopping.
A monthly gauge of same-store sales from Thomson Reuters found 4.2% growth from a year...

Saturday has been designated as Teen Vogue's Back to School Saturday at 100 shopping centers across the country. Participating malls will have fashion events including runway shows, fashion pop-up displays, shopping parties and special promotions.
...

Teen apparel brands have been losing their shirts, and it's not a fashion choice.
Against a backdrop of prolonged consumer stinginess, reinforced Friday by reports of a scant monthly increase in August retail sales, an anemic back-to-school performance...

Temperatures are beachside-balmy. Most Americans haven't thought about their Halloween costumes. Parents are still in back-to-school mode.
But retailers already have visions of profit dancing in their heads.
Kmart aired its first holiday ad last week,...

Retail sales during the prime back-to-school shopping month of September grew more than the prior month but were still muffled by heavy head winds.
The gauge of same-store sales, which calculates sales at stores open for more than a year, rose “a modest”...

Apple's annual back-to-school promotion kicked off Tuesday with discounts on computers and gift cards for college students and K-12 educators purchasing Macs, iPhones and iPads.
Qualifying customers purchasing a new Mac will receive a $100 gift card that...

Shopping for a K-12 student is still an expensive proposition, but parents this year are planning to trim their spending and focus on necessities, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation.
The average expenditure for apparel, shoes,...

Christen Press and Whitney Engen grew up just 13 months and a few miles apart on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. And they've been virtually inseparable on a soccer field ever since, playing together as kids, against each other in college and now as...

Baby hipsters and BFFs Kaylee Vega and Madi Spadaro, both 13 and from Redondo Beach, are navigating the South Bay Galleria in Torrance with shark-like aggression. They've been saving pocket money all summer, and now, just weeks before school starts at the...

-- Retailers are ready for the all-important back-to-school season, which kicks off this month and is the second-largest sales drive of the year, accounting for 16% of the retail industry's annual sales. The International Council of Shopping Centers is forecas

The all-important back-to-school shopping season is threatening to slow the retail industry's recent momentum. As retailers roll out fresh back-to-school merchandise and tout early deals, a "shadow of insecurity" tied to the nation's slow economic recovery sti

Here's your don't-you-forget-about-me Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web: -- It's back-to-school time, and it's going to cost you. But many stores would rather you didn't notice. Some are using less fabric for the clothing and calling ...